The Weekly Word
by Aida Caroti
Summary: "We pledge, here and now, that everything we publish will be factual and in the general interest of the population. We will not be silenced, we will not be controlled. We will ask the questions that need answering, and find the truth. This is our pledge to you, dear readers, and you may hold us to it." The Weekly Word, an anon weekly newspaper that answers the 'real' questions
1. Chapter 1

A/N Before we begin, I feel I should warn you that this story will comprise of newspaper articles posted between 2024-2025. These articles are from 'The Weekly Word' an anonymous newspaper that began distribution in early 2024. This 'story' will be comprised of one article a week and will hopefully will give you an insight into my Wizarding World. This is part of a series of stories I've been working on for more than a year, the first story taking place in 2022 has not yet been completed or posted. Look out for it! I hope you enjoy this!

 _The Weekly Word_

 _19th January 2024_

 **A WELCOME TO OUR NEW READERS:**

 **BRITAIN'S FIRST INDEPENDENT MAGICAL NEWSPAPER**

 _ **By Icarus**_

It's 2024 (as I'm sure you are aware, unless you managed to sleep through the new year and the following weeks) and we are just announcing Britain's first truly independent magical newspaper.

What?

It is quite telling of just how far our society is behind the muggles that their newspapers first began more than 360 years ago, and these newspapers from the get-go were completely independent and in control of what they printed. We cannot say the same, can we? Yes the war was more than 25 years ago, but still our only national newspaper (The Daily Prophet) is controlled by the Ministry of Magic! Don't believe me? Think back to last year where the Minister of Magic himself prevented the Prophet from reporting on the death of Annie Gold, well known muggle born politician, and the murder of their own reporter! Not only that but the newspaper was stifled, preventing them from informing the public of the danger of the terrorist group The Non-Conformites until after the death of more than twenty members of the public in Diagon Alley. The Ministry of Magic believe that they are above the mistakes of the past and yet they continue to recreate them.

So not only is our competitor continually leaned on by The Ministry of Magic and other famous and well known people (who have deep pockets, I have been reliably informed) they also allow reporters to publish unfactual drivel and call it 'news' (Rita Skeeter, anyone?). This is a travesty, our greatest failing, it is the job of Newpapers to report the NEWS not gossip, not incorrect facts, but the NEWS (you would think it would be obvious?) The fact that we still rely on the infamously unreliable Prophet for news just goes to show how bad it is.

We, the creators of this newspaper are: fed up, bone-tired and sick to the death of this fact. We feel that instead of complaining about it, it's time we do something about it. So this newpaper was born, a Weekly update on the news. We hope as we gain readership we will be able to interview members of the Ministry and ask them your (and our) questions. This is a newspaper of the future, and we hope you will join us.

 **We pledge, here and now, that everything we publish will be factual and in the general interest of the population. We will not be silenced, we will not be controlled. We will ask the questions that need answering, and find the truth. This is our pledge to you, dear readers, and you may hold us to it.**

As you may be aware, Icarus is not my name. This newspaper will be anonymous, feel free to speculate on our (for their is a team of us) identity, but do not let it hamper what we are trying to do. We do not hate the Ministry, or want to cause strife. We just want the truth we feel the public deserves.

If you have any suggestions on articles and questions you would like answered please send them to our PO box (address on the back.)

 **AUROR OFFICE IN SHAMBLES**

 **BY DESMA**

The events of last years terrorist attacks by the terrorist group The Non-Conformites continue to affect the once sturdy Auror department. The department that once housed 46 full time Aurors is now down to 21, and this is after a massive recruitment drive last year.

The department has seen many of its most seasoned Aurors depart as of late, some, such as Dennis Creevey due to injury, while other younger Aurors have left without an obvious reason. The dwindling number of Aurors must be a great worry to Harry Potter, Head Auror. Especially as last year their recruitment drive only saw a measly two Aurors join the ranks, and this is after they lowered the entry level they required.

Of those two that joined statistics show that 50% will drop out within the first year of training. Mr Potter is so worried, it is reported, that he and Percy Weasley (Head of International Relations) are in talks with the American Ministry to send emergency Aurors over. The fear is that if another event like last year occurred the Auror's would not be able to respond.

However, while the recruitment is down for the Aurors it has more than doubled for the Hit Wizards. Hit Wizards, who once only dealt the most dangerous of dark wizards, have seen a change in their job requirements. They now investigate minor crimes and work to capture felons before they can go on to commit serious crimes. This move changes our system to more closely resemble the much more effective muggle way. Now the Aurors can deal with serious crimes and the capture of the most dangerous witches and wizards and the Hit Wizard's (who are said to be changing their name) can deal with the day-to-day police keeping of the country.

Time will tell how successful the changes will be for the Department but it cannot be denied that the Auror department is still successfully working with depleted numbers. Last week two neo-purebloods were arrested for hate crimes after a successful investigation- their trials will be on the 3rd of February.

So while it is potentially problematic that several Aurors have left 'the company' the fact remains that we still have a strong Department for Magical Law Enforcement and they will continue to protect the country as they always have.

In other words, ignore the scaremongering in the Daily Prophet.

A/N As you may have guessed each chapter will act as an edition of the paper, there will be two articles in each chapter. One will be a news event from the week and the other a more political look at the Magical Society, dealing with education and politics. I hope you enjoy it! If you've got any aspects of Magical Society you think we could discuss- let me know. Oh! And let me know who you think the authors are! Thanks for reading!


	2. 26th January

**THE WEEKLY WORD**

26th January 2023

 **NEW DATA SUGGESTS THAT 30% OF 11 YEAR OLDS HAVE A READING AGE OF 7**

 **BY ICARUS**

New data released this week by the Magical Education Organisation (MEO) suggests that 30% of First Year Hogwarts students are arriving with a reading age of seven, implying they are six years behind their peers. This shocking figure puts doubt on Magical Britain's ability to educate their children.

The BMS (British Magical Survey) last year found that 67% of parents chose to educate their children at home. When asked why the majority of these parents stated that it was because of the fear of accidental magic. While this is a worthy reason it means that hundreds of children are being educated at home and therefore are not developing socially as their muggle peers would. Keeping children at home, often isolated from others their age, means that children arrive at Hogwarts unable to socialise and suffering from emotional turmoil. I spoke to Professor Cartwright an expert in child development.

"The problem with homeschooling is the lack of interaction with other children outside the family. This is how children develop. Children need to interact with others, it is important to their own development and will affect them in later life. Even if parents chose to home-school they should ensure their children have the opportunities to interact with others their age, either through sports or other clubs. It makes a huge difference."

I then asked whether or not Professor Cartwright would be able to tell which children had not had this interaction, "of course, children that have not developed socially will struggle at Hogwarts, they will find it hard to make friends and to play. It is often the adults in later life that have issues with social environments that have lacked socialisation as a child."

Not only is homeschooling perhaps problematic socially for children but it also has effects on their academic ability. Wizarding Britain is the only country that does not currently have a Primary education system. Keep this in mind when reading the list produced by the MEO on the world rankings for education.

China

France

USA

Norway

Canada

Greece

India

Indonesia

Sweden

South Africa

As you can see we are not in the top ten. We aren't even in the top twenty. In fact, Britain is 55th in the world rankings. The education of our youngsters should be a key focus of our Ministry, especially after we have been allowed to fall so far down the world league table. But instead the Ministry is focusing on its newest bid on the Quidditch World Cup. This is more than questionable. Why isn't the Ministry bothered about educating? Why is the Ministry allowing our children to arrive at Hogwarts unable to read?

Not only is this bad for the children it's bad for Hogwart's as they have to then spend weeks teaching eleven year olds to read because no one has ensured they arrived that way.

We are limiting our children by not giving them a good education. While there are many that are homeschooled successfully, it is not providing them with a wider curriculum. Muggle children learn Literacy, Numeracy and Science as well as humanities such as Geography and History. Most magical children learn only the basics of Literacy and Numeracy.

So we at the Weekly Word ask this of our Ministry: is a Quidditch World Cup more important than our children's education?

 **CORRUPTION STILL AT THE HEART OF OUR SOCIETY?**

 **BY DESMA**

There was once a time, not so long ago, where corruption was at the heart of our society. It controlled education, politics, law and everything in between. We know it is a great part of our past, but does it still control our present?

Our Ministry and many of you would disagree. You would say it was a problem of the past, not of the present. After the war, the Ministry was stripped bare and built back up, from the bottom up. Staff were replaced, others were investigated and incarcerated, the bad eggs removed,

However, this week we can reveal that simply isn't true. In the past ten years, 15 Ministry employees have been caught accepting bribes, some from the higher levels of the Ministry. This was never publicized in a an attempt by The Ministry to hush up the corruption that has begun to infect Shacklebolt's Ministry. However, these incidents are in the public record and if anyone wishes to check our facts please feel free to bombard the Ministry Record Office for information.

Why are we reporting this now? Good question, simple answer. We have been curious for a while about the possible corruption in The Ministry that seems to be spreading quickly through the ranks and offices. We (The Weekly Word) approached several members of The Ministry with offers of bribes for top secret information, this includes information on terrorist watch lists and The Ministry's defences. Shockingly, of the twelve people we approached five gave us the information for a small fee. It is important for you to realise that all this information was secret, and should not (under any circumstance) have been released to a tabloid newspaper.

We have informed the Auror department of those who gave us information and signed a wizarding contract to confirm we will not publish any of this information. We contacted Mr Potter (Head Auror) for comment.

"This is obviously very worrying. No one should be giving any information to anyone without clearance from us. We will be investigating and reviewing our secret act and ways to enforce it."

While Mr Potter is obviously going to work tirelessly to rectify this it does make us wonder why it took a newspaper to bring this to the Head Aurors attention. We will continue to monitor the situation as the trials begin.

A/N The eagle eyed of you might have noticed I've changed the year- I had to make adjustments to fit in with my other stories.


	3. 2nd February

**The Weekly Word**

2nd February

 **IS MUGGLE HEALTH CARE BETTER?**

 **BY ICARUS**

Did you know that our healthcare is years out of date? Did you know that many diseases, that are often more common in muggles, have no cure in our society? Neither did I until a family friend was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, one that we currently have no cure for.

However, muggles have been able to treat this same disease (with different levels of success) for years. The question is, why can we not cure a disease that muggles can?

Here we could make many suppositions, but we at at The Weekly Word will only report facts, so here are the facts- it is up to you to decide what they mean.

100 years ago less than 6% of our population would contract a 'muggle' disease. This is contributed to the fact that it was harder to diagnose and the lower percentage of muggles and muggle-borns in our society. At this time, less than 30% of our population were muggle born.

However, in the past hundred years 5 billion galleons was spent on developing our healthcare system and researching and curing diseases. However, less than 1% of this money has gone on curing common muggles ailments that affect a large percentage of our society. In fact, 10 times more funding has gone into developing a way to prevent the diseases caused by attempting to, 'keep the blood purity.' This of course means that 10% of our funding has gone into maintaining pureblood's health at the dispense of muggle-born members of society. We are not claiming that no research should go into common pureblood ailments (never mind that these issues stem from inbreeding) but we fail to see why muggle-borns are made to suffer at their expense.

I thought we were a progressive society? I thought we had got past this, evidently not, If anyone wishes to check our facts, please do so, they are available through the public relations office.

I will finish with this. My close family friend is currently seeking treatment in a muggle hospital. They are responding well to the treatment and we have our fingers crossed for them. They are not the only witch or wizard that have been forced to go elsewhere for treatment. Many witches and wizards now choose to go to muggle hospitals or travel abroad to receive better treatment. Our healthcare system is failing you. It's up to you to do something about it.

 **WEASLEY PUSHES THROUGH NEW BILL TO ALLOW APPEALS**

 **BY DESMA**

This week Hermione Weasley, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, has finally had the bill to allow convicted criminals the right to an appeal passed. You may not have heard about this, and that is because other 'newspapers' have refused to report this massive forward step in personal rights.

The bill means that all those that have been tried and convicted of a crime have the ability to contest their conviction and demand (if there is enough evidence) a retrial. This is a great step towards equality. Previously, Pureblood families with members on the Wizengamort were the only ones to be allowed to appeal a guilty finding. This was a clear advantage to purebloods and was one of the many ways our society continues to favour purebloods even in this day and age. Hermione Weasley, a muggleborn herself, has worked hard for several years to continue repealing laws that favour purebloods. A statement from Mrs Weasley yesterday said, "My department and I are very pleased with the passing of bill 453.9, this is a huge step forward as we continue to ensure that all members of our society, no matter blood status, race or wealth have the same opportunities in life. It is important that those convicted of a crime can later appeal, this means that if any new evidence comes to light it will allow those convicted to appeal their sentence. It is important that members of our society that are incarcerated have the same rights. This will help prevent innocent parties languishing in jail while those guilty roam free. This is a win for everyone is society," that was Mrs Weasley's statement.

For those that are confused, what this bill does is allow those in jail to maintain their right to appeal. They can ask for a retrial and appeal the length of the sentence. This is important as it means that those that are innocent can continue to claim to be. Perhaps you believe that is it impossible for innocent people to be jailed. But it isn't. Sirius Black was imprisoned without trial and suffered for twelve years in Azkaban, he died a guilty man and was found innocent posthumously seven years after his death. Luna Scamander (at the time Lovegood) was imprisoned in 2004 for assumed espionage. She was imprisoned for seven months before Mr Potter headed a Wizengamort and cleared her name, with the help of Mr Weasley and Mrs Weasley the then Deputy to the DMLE. Mrs Scamander released this statement at the time of her release, "I am glad that Harry, Ron and Hermione have fought to prove my innocence for so long. They are very good friends and I am glad to have them. I feel let down by our Government and I am very sad that I no longer want to live here. I and Rolf will be leaving next week to continue our search for the Crumple Headed Snorkack, you can read more about the search in the Quibbler."

She wasn't the last one, either. Last year Rupert Longley was found guilty for the murder of his wife. He was jailed for eight months before his lawyer and Mr Finch-Fletchley showed the Aurors evidence to the contrary. In both these cases it was only because of the belief of others that worked tirelessly to prove their innocence that they were allowed a retrial.

How many more people have been convicted wrongly and suffered time in jail? How many people have been in jail for years, with no one around to defend them or protest their innocence? We can't be sure, but it is unlikely that the three people we have mentioned have been the only ones. We are sure in coming months there will be many appeals, some of them may be innocent, time will only tell.

We as a society should be grateful for this new bill and with it we know that justice will continue to be served. Thank you Mrs Weasley, for once again protecting our society from injustice.

* * *

A/N I actually have the next three chapters written so you can expect the next three to come quite quickly, hopefully I'll have them typed up pretty soon and posted this week. Thanks to all those who have continued reading this, I appreciate it and you. Please leave a review, I read them all and I will reply, I love suggestions and ideas so don't be afraid to send them in! Thanks, ~Aida


	4. 9th February

A/N Sorry for the long wait!

STANDARDS AT HOGWARTS?

 **BY ICARUS**

In our magical society, unlike the muggle society, there is almost no accountability taken by the faculty at Hogwarts. We, in Magical Britain, have only one option for schooling- unless of course we wish to send our children abroad. That choice is Hogwarts, the second oldest magical school in the world.

There have always been doubts about the quality of schooling at Hogwarts, and of the safety of students in school. While many teachers at Hogwarts are sufficiently trained there are no Ministry inspections to ensure a good quality of teaching. Professor Binns is a ghost who teaches at the school. He had taught The History of Magic for the last century and his teaching has remained unchanged, despite several changes to the History curriculum in recent years and evolving teaching methods. Many students at Hogwarts describe his lessons as, 'boring', with only 5% of Hogwart's students taking History of Magic to NEWT level. This has had dire consequences for our society. We talked to Brian Macaley, Chief of the Preservation of Magical History. "The problem is that many jobs in the Public Sector and the Private require an in depth knowledge of History. Take Gringotts for example, if you would like there after Hogwarts it is critical to have a secure understanding of Goblin and Wizard relations and the way the monetary system has worked in the past. The lack of qualified people means that we are having to either train people on the job or employ from overseas."

We asked the Headmistress of Hogwarts for s statement, "We actively encourage people to question the quality of teaching. Our statistics are in the public record. However, Professor Binns has taught at Hogwarts for many years and the teachers and Governors do not feel that it would be moral to disturb his eternal rest."

Seems Professor Sinistra is more worried about insulting someone that's been dead for more than fifty years than the education of her students.

Trial of Terrance Higgs:

MASTERMIND OF THE ATTEMPT ON HOGWARTS

BY DESMA

A little over 18 months ago the terrorist group the Non-Conformites first came to the publics attention after the attack on Diagon Alley, which killed several and injured many more. This attack was the first in a period of terror. The group were also responsible for the attempted murder of Hermione Weasley and Harry Potter- both unsuccessful due to the interference of others and the dreadful attack on Hogwarts which left several teachers under the Imperious Curse and four students seriously injured.

The terrorist Terrence Higgs was finally captured after the Aurors, led by Potter and Weasley, stormed the castle killing two terrorists and capturing the leader Terrence Higgs.

The attack was foiled by a group of sixth-year students who helped bring down the wards to allow the Aurors to storm the castle. These students were: Madeline Colins, Fred Weasley, Alison Higgs, and James Potter. Alison Higgs, a Slytherin and daughter of the accused was the instigator in the student resistance. Potter was seriously injured in the attack while Weasley and Colins received minor injuries.

Ted Lupin, an auror at the school during the attack had this to say, "Higgs infiltrated Hogwarts and used Unforgivable Curses to ensure that the staff at Hogwarts had no choice but to comply. These people have no respect for life and Higgs is an evil, vindictive man who will continue to use any means to reach his aims."

Mr Lupin is talking here of Mr Higgs aim to purify our society through eradicating those who are muggle-born. The trial is expected to continue for several weeks. It is expected that Mrs Weasley, Mr Potter, Mr Lupin, Miss Higgs and Mr James Potter will be called to give evidence in the coming weeks.

We will keep you updated as the case progresses.

* * *

A/N Hope you enjoyed, if you have any suggestions- let me know!


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